Certainly on issues that tend to preoccupy National Post readers: the cost of living, traffic, crime and disorder, the Jewish community’s safety, collapsing public transit, the opioid disaster.
asserted
that → tend → living
But most of those issues are among the leading concerns for everyone in this city.
asserted
most → lead → city
On finding people an affordable place to live, Chow’s only real competitor, Brad Bradford, championed more inclusive residential zoning in his years on council, and promised to scrap the municipal land-transfer tax.
asserted
competitor → find → tax
In pursuit of cheaper groceries, she said she would offer tax breaks to independent and “mom-and-pop” stores opening shop in priority neighbourhoods.
asserted
she → say → neighbourhoods
That’s not because the proprietors live under Galen Weston Jr.’s thumb; it’s simple economies of scale.
asserted
it → ’ → scale
But it sure seems to sound nice to people who don’t live in those neighbourhoods and have never been to a discount grocery store in their lives.
asserted
who → seem → lives
Of course we would be much better off luring No Frills or FreshCo to under-groceried areas; better still to eliminate obstacles to every kind of business that wants to open shop in Toronto.
asserted
that → lure → Toronto
Bradford was less obsessed with grocery price manipulation, and quite rightly so.
asserted
Bradford → obsess → manipulation
On the situation facing Toronto’s Jewish community: Chow, the mayor who loves to be seen, is completely missing in action — physically, policy-wise, and in dealing with the feckless police (last seen removing Bradford campaign signs in a Jewish neighbourhood so as to keep the peace at a protest by the you-know-whos).
asserted
you → face → whos
It almost doesn’t matter what her problem is with the Jewish community.
asserted
problem → matter → community
But she and her campaign clearly don’t see it as a liability, and unfortunately, they seem to have been right.
asserted
they → see → liability
Chow wouldn’t even show up at the annual Walk for Israel.)
asserted
Chow → show → Israel
On housing, Chow was the mayor who blinked in the face of opposition to legalizing sixplexes city-wide, declining to use her “strong mayor powers” to overrule NIMBY opponents on council.
asserted
who → blink → council
This was on principle, she said, because “I don’t believe a top-down way of doing things will mean that people are going to rush out and build housing,” and because “we need to work with the homeowners so that they feel comfortable doing it” — and more of the same status quo-preserving nonsense that never goes anywhere useful.
asserted
that → say → nonsense
Bradford didn’t have anything revelatory to offer on cost of living, but it’s not an easy problem to solve.
asserted
it → have → living
There was the promise to end the land-transfer tax and a promise to reduce water bills … which is more compelling, at least, than mom-and-pop grocery.
asserted
which → be → grocery
Bradford clearly has a bit of a charisma problem, if you care about charisma in your politicians, which I don’t.
asserted
I → have → politicians
(Few in Canada have much of note to begin with.)
asserted
Few → have → note
Tell me what you plan to do and why I should trust you to actually do it.
asserted
I → tell → it
Which brings us to the elephant in the room: Canada’s least popular premier, Doug Ford.
asserted
Which → bring → room
The skating- and swimming-lesson registration portal, I suppose.
asserted
I → suppose → ?
But he will happily dive into the minutiae of his own obsessions, most recently ripping out city-installed bike lanes.
asserted
he → dive → lanes
Whatever you think of the lanes, this really isn’t something the transport minister of a trillion-dollar economy should be concerned with, never mind the premier.
asserted
minister → think → economy
The irony is that many in Chow’s progressive core see her as the anti-Ford candidate.
asserted
many → see → candidate
She hasn’t saved any of the things they love: bike lanes (though Ford is only tearing them out so far at the periphery); the Ontario Science Centre; Ontario Place; a jet-free Island Airport (the feds are currently against it, but could always change their minds).
uncertain
feds → save → minds
By any reasonable reading of his own words, Ford endorsed Chow.
asserted
Ford → endorse → Chow
They’re good friends, have been for decades.
asserted
They → ’re → decades
I’m old enough to remember when progressives tore former mayor John Tory to shreds for capitulating to Ford’s menaces against the city.
asserted
progressives → ’m → city
He had to fight, fight, FIGHT for Toronto, whatever that meant.
asserted
that → have → whatever
Chow gets a free pass.
asserted
Chow → get → pass
Perhaps it’s too simplistic to call it a double standard: Perceived progressives get a benefit of the doubt on basic probity and good intentions that perceived conservatives do not — and to be perceived as “the progressive one” and “the conservative one” doesn’t take much if any actual evidence of progressivism or conservatism.
asserted
perceived → ’ → progressivism
We need simplistic narratives above all else.
asserted
We → need → else
Bradford was the one taking most of the shots at Ford during this campaign.
asserted
Bradford → take → campaign
But he got zero credit for it.
asserted
he → get → it
Part of that is just the powerful drug of incumbency: It’s a small sample size, but since the 1998 “amalgamation” between downtown and outer ridings, no sitting mayor has ever been unseated.
asserted
mayor → ’ → ridings
Still, that didn’t save two councillors from richly deserved defeats on Monday, including the transparently ineffectual TTC chair, Jamaal Myers.
asserted
that → save → chair
(One fun revelation from the mayoral campaign: Chow doesn’t take public transit!)
asserted
Chow → take → transit
But incumbency didn’t stop voters in Hamilton — Steeltown! Old-time NDP religion! — from busting former provincial NDP leader Andrea Horwath from the mayor’s chair down to third place in the election.
asserted
incumbency → stop → election
This is Canadian municipal politics; we’re not looking for JFK or Wilfrid Laurier.
asserted
we → look → JFK
We must try to take solace that it won him 404,000 votes — more than Rob Ford or David Miller ever managed, and 41 per cent of the total.
asserted
Ford → try → total
The Aporia
